WorshipCentral

I’m in the studio recording an album, and I’m going to be updating each day through the production process.

Alex

Today is the first day: we started after lunch with a song called ‘Glorious’. It’s the first time I’ve been in the studio and I was really nervous about how the songs would feel. Any fears I had totally melted away when we worked on ‘Glorious’. Production team have worked super hard putting together the most amazing band, and it’s really paying off: the sound is exactly where I want it to be, which is really fun.

On guitar is Alex Nifong, who had flown in from Atlanta, where he plays with Passion. He’s bringing something very fresh to the mix, really contemporary and very creative. Paul Evans is on drums, and I’ve worked with Paul live a few times: Paul did the drums on ‘Holding Nothing Back’ and as well as playing at Soul Survivor has played with us at Worship Central a few times. Paul is literally a drum animal. Bass is being nailed by the incredible Mark Prentice, who plays with onehundredhours. The album is being produced by Trevor Michael, who has worked with Delirious, Vineyard UK, and Survivor Record and is brilliant. He’s got a fantastic ability to bring the best out of the team effortlessly, which is in itself really inspiring to be around.

So after a cup of tea and a few hours set-up, we started on the first track, ‘Glorious’. ‘Glorious’ is one of the oldest songs on the record, and we’ve used it a lot at church, so I was keen to bring something fresh to it. We reworked the end section and took the whole song up a gear, and I’m really excited with the result. It’s a lot more upbeat than I’ve done it before, which really works.

We took from lunch to about 7pm to finish ‘tracking’ the guitar, bass and drums, and the song sounds great. After a cheeky Chinese, we started on ‘Nothing Is Impossible’, and we’re still going strong. We spent a long time going through the arrangement, and the guys came up with various parts, arrangements. We’ve been tracking it for about three hours now (way past my bedtime) and it’s sounding monster. Seriously. I’m worried it’s going to scare the children. We’re now going through over-dubs and extra guitar parts, which give the rest of the band the chance to listen through to the track.

The big surprise is how much I’m enjoying myself. I was nervous I’d find the process hard and stressful, but I’m absolutely loving every second of it. The pace is very relaxing, and there’s lots of space to listen, chill, think. Anyway, got to go. More tomorrow!